I am a sociologist by training, with a special interest in health and in public policy generally. The purpose of this site is to provide a platform for matters of comment, analysis and perspective in public policy. Having followed a career in the academic world (see the short bio below) I am committed to an evidence-informed approach to public dialogue, albeit within the parameters of the social market/ social democratic mainstream that we take largely for granted in the welfare state economies of Western Europe, Australasia and North America. Elsewhere on this site you will find Street Art from my neighbourhood, and links to books and articles and reports I have published over my academic career.

In 2017 I retired from the University of Auckland, where I had established and headed the COMPASS research group in the Faculty of Arts for ten years and before that taught and researched for 30 years in health policy and health services in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences (and for a time at the Christchurch Medical School). I still hold positions as an Honorary Professor in the Department of Statistics (Faculty of Science) and as an Emeritus Professor in Population Health and Social Science (Faculty of Arts) at the University of Auckland.

Subsequent to leaving the University I was elected a member of the Auckland District Health Board, where my main areas of interest were, until mid-2022: the reporting and using of information to improve the performance of health systems, the effective management of public sector organisations to achieve policy goals, and the development of evidence-informed public policy. I am also the Chair of the Board of Trustees at The Helen Clark Foundation, an organisation I helped found in 2019 as a New Zealand-focussed public policy think tank.